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Buying Hearing Aids Online in 2019? Here is What You Need To Know

Written by Geoffrey Cooling

Updated February 08, 2019Published January 11, 2019

Don't Get Caught With This Hearing Aid Rip Off, nanohearingaids.com

I was moved to write an article recently calling out nanohearingaids.com as the rip off that they are. I said then, that it isn't often that we are moved to action against online hearing device retailers. Mainly because generally, they don't actually set out to con the consumer. However, the actions of nanohearing.com forced us to action. Unfortunately, people are still being ripped off by them and they continue to make outrageous claims about shitty equipment (Irish technical term). In fact, they have gone further by setting up a series of spurious websites to support their lies. I decided that while I was writing this article, I would also take the time to update, and incorporate our advice about buying hearing aids online. Things have changed since the original article in 2017, so let's talk about buying hearing aids online and Nano hearing aids. Update 14/05/2019: A firm of solicitors have contacted us representing Mr Charles Crawford of King Crawford LLC who is the owner of Nano Hearing Aids .Com. The letter is a cease and desist letter stating that we are defaming their client. In fairness, they say that this article does not reflect the new changed Nano Hearing Aid website. One of the things they mentioned was the image below and the mention of automatic adjustment, which they say they have now removed. This article exactly and precisely reflects the claims that they made at the time of publishing. However, in the spirit of fairness, I will mark where the details have changed.

Independent Hearing Aid Advice

At Hearing Aid Know, we pride ourselves on giving good, honest, Independent and non-biased hearing aid advice. We decided to get serious in early 2017 because we felt that there was a need for good non-technical explanations of hearing aids and their technologies. Not just that, we also felt that people needed to be able to understand the difference between Providers of hearing healthcare so they could make educated decisions about their care. We continue to be committed to that and the information you get from Hearing Aid Know is completely unbiased. We have no vested interests. The con from Nano hearing aids really, really irritates us. Not only are they ripping off consumers, but through bad advice and downright lies, they are putting them in danger.

screen capture of nano hearing aids website Oct 2018

Nano Hearing Aids

So the image above shows their most popular product, the Nano CIC hearing aids. What is really fascinating about these amazing advanced technology hearing aids at a fantastic price is that they look very similar to thirty dollar hearing aids available on Alibaba. Hmmmmmmm. Anyway, the nanohearingaids.com site is something to behold, with outrageous lies and claims. You can read all about that in our original article Hearing Aids Rip Off. In this article, I want to explain how they are using different spurious websites and fake reviews to support the sales of their rubbish.

Meet besthearingaidreviews.com

Update 14/05/2019: Somebody has set up a site called besthearingaidsreviews.com, and it is as full of bullshit as nanohearingaids.com was. If you take a cursory look at it, it seems to have been online since 2017. If you take a little deeper look, you realise that the entire site was published in January 2019. In fact, it was published solely to support nanohearingaids.com. They have used the website to include a huge amount of backlinks to the nanohearingaids.com site as well as fool unsuspecting consumers by pretending to be an independent hearing aid review site.

What About The Hearing Loss Association???

They were using the website http://hearinglossassociation.org/, I mean that site was really fooling people because they thought it was the Hearing Loss Association of America giving their recommendation. However, they have stopped using it and transferred all of the content to best hearing aids reviews. They also are masters are using fake reviews and using fake Facebook profiles to push their rubbish. In the video below you can see Cliff Olson run both the Nano and the Alibaba stuff through their paces. Funnily enough, they are so similar, they are almost inseparable!?!? Imagine!?!?

There is an excellent Facebook group devoted entirely to revealing their deceptive tactics, it can be found at https://www.facebook.com/nanohearingaids/. In this way, they hope to maintain this aura of trust in order that they can fool more consumers into buying their rubbish. It is rubbish folks, don't buy this crap, if you really, really want to try it out, well then buy it for forty dollars on Alibaba. Let's talk about online hearing aid sellers, who you should consider safe to buy hearing aids online from and how best to make that decision.

The Blamey and Saunders Standard

We support Independent Hearing Healthcare Providers on Hearing Aid Know, but funnily enough, we also support your right to buying online if you want to. It is very important that you understand that we don't think that buying a hearing aid online is right for everyone. We have always said that we don't think online sales of hearing aids are a bad thing when there is an infrastructure set up to cater for it. By that, we mean that the online sales are supported by a testing and fitting infrastructure either online or offline. We coined the term, the Blamey and Saunders standard to recognise online businesses that provide that infrastructure.

Blamey and Saunders in Australia deliver a system we would support as does iHear, Eargo and more recently Lively Hearing who we reported on recently. The first three companies have purposely set themselves up and designed their technology to be delivered online. Lively Hearing is using modern mainstream hearing aid technology to deliver decent hearing aids with strong backup aftercare. The crucial thing for us is that the after sales support is clearly there.

Buying A Hearing Aid Online

The sales of hearing devices online are not new, there are businesses around the world that sell hearing aids online direct to consumers. In fact, some of those businesses do an excellent job of it, in the main because they have that infrastructure in place to ensure the buyer's success. Not only is the infrastructure in place, but the product is designed to be delivered in that way.

I have said in the past that hearing aids from the big brands that are not really designed to be sold in that manner. However, that has changed somewhat, many of the major hearing aid brands now offer telecare solutions. Which means that someone can look after you remotely. It still isn't the full infrastructure needed to sell mainstream hearing aids online, however, it means that remote aftercare is now easy to deliver.

If you were to send in your audiogram to a company offering this service such as Lively Hearing, they could technically programme the hearing aids and send them out to you. Once you were wearing them, they could connect to them and make changes if need be. This isn't by any means full service and aftercare, and as I said, it is not a suitable model for everyone. However, if you are tech savvy and you don't mind fiddling with stuff, well then this might be an attractive model for you.

What You Need To Know When Buying Online

So here it is, this is what you need to consider when buying online, the first and most important thing is that hearing aids are not like glasses. You don't just put them on and everything is wonderful. It simply doesn't work like that. Many people will need strong aftercare to get the best out of their hearing aids. You need to be confident that the online retailer can give you that care and service and is committed to doing so.

It is both my experience and the experience of Steve that to get on well with hearing aids, many people need the involvement of a good hearing healthcare professional. Before now, our worry was that people may buy the hearing devices and then find it difficult to get a professional to help them. This has changed with the introduction of remote care technology. Telecare systems enable the delivery of that aftercare. So there are several things you really need to consider so you can make an educated choice before buying.

What You Need To Think About When Buying A Hearing Aid Online

Okay, firstly, only buy hearing aids online if you are the type of person that can manage. By that, I mean that you are tech-savvy, committed, with decent eyesight and dexterity. The second thing is that you should only buy hearing aids online if you have a simple hearing loss. Online purchase of hearing aids is not suitable for people with complex hearing loss.

If this is the first time around the hearing aid merry go round for you. You really need to see a professional before you do anything. Sometimes a hearing loss can be caused by problems other than simple hearing loss. Sometimes a hearing loss can be caused by tumours, sometimes a hearing loss can be caused by a simple earwax plug. When you are buying online, no one looks in your ear, on top of that, the online tests are incomplete and can miss conductive hearing losses. So I think it is really important that if you haven't been seen by a professional, you should really think about doing that. Here are the pointers:

Hearing aids aren't glasses, they don't just work

You will need ongoing care, make sure that care is available

Get a professional and in-depth hearing test before you do anything

Completely investigate what that aftercare is, and how it is delivered

Completely investigate what the returns and warranty policy is from the business

Completely investigate how repairs are handled and what the costs of repairs are outside warranty

Only buy from an online seller that offers to programme the hearing aid to your hearing loss

Send them your latest audiogram so that the hearing aids can be programmed to your hearing loss

If you are buying mainstream brand hearing aids from a business like Lively Hearing there are some further things you need to think about. After your warranty period with Lively, you may want to engage with a local hearing care professional. If so, these are the things you need to think about.

How much will it cost you for a local business to take over your care?

How much will it cost for aftercare visits from a local business? (you will still need them)

How much will it cost for repairs to be handled by a local business?

Finally and probably the big question, will the extra costs of getting someone local to help you mean a net financial saving or loss for you?

Online Hearing Aid Sites

I have said it before, it is a rare occurrence that I resort to Irish technical terms on the blog. In the case of Nano, it is spurred by barely restrained fury. These people are ripping off people who need help, not just that, with bad advice and outrageous lies they may be endangering the lives of people. As I said before, some people are desperate enough to try it and they get taken, that is really what infuriates me.

We will support online hearing aid retailers when and where it makes sense for the consumer. We are on record that we support Blamey and Saunders in Australia and we have mentioned some other sites that we would support here. I have laid out in the past why that is so. If you are determined to buy online, and if you are a fit for that model, go to one of them, don't get ripped off by nanohearingaids.com. Like us on Facebook to keep up with the latest news on hearing aids and hearing loss or simply subscribe to our newsletter.

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Geoffrey Cooling

Co Foundergeoff@audiologyengine.comGeoffrey (Geoff, anything else makes him nervous) Cooling is an Irish hearing aid blogger and has been involved with the hearing aid industry for over ten years. He has worked in private practice dispensing hearing aids and as a manufacturer's rep. He has written two books and they are both available on Amazon. He loves technology, passing on knowledge and is legendary for many other things, primarily the amount he curses, his dry and mischievous sense of humour and his complete intolerance of people who are full of themselves. Please feel free to connect with him

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About The Authors

Hearing Aid Know is written by Steve Claridge and Geoffrey Cooling. Steve has been wearing hearing aids
for over thirty years and Geoff is a veteran of the audiology industry. Together they give a holistic
view of the hearing aid industry and the equipment available from both sides of the fence.

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We deliver clear independent advice on hearing aids, hearing aid technology and hearing aid types combined with honest advice on who's good at providing them. We aren't tied, contracted or obligated to any hearing aid company or hearing aid manufacturer.

Steve has been wearing hearing aids for over thirty years and Geoff is a veteran of the hearing aid industry. Together they have a vast knowledge of hearing aids and the people that provide them.

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